The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) and the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) have launched a new journal: Constitutional Studies (CS). The journal publishes work from a variety of disciplines addressing the theory and practice of constitutional government worldwide. CS joins the family of (comparative) constitutional law journals with an ambitious vision of making scientific knowledge accessible to everyone everywhere, breaking down linguistic, geographical and economic barriers.
In Vol. 11 No. 1 (2025): State of the Field, University Professor Ran Hirschl, David R. Cameron Distinguished Professor in Law and Politics, has published "Comparative Constitutional Inquiry: The North American Angle". Hirschl is credited with stating that the Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law is far from over and is the author of Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law, winner of the 2015 APSA C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law & courts.
Abstract
I reflect on the state of comparative constitutional inquiry from a North American perspective. I begin by addressing the global expansion of constitutions and constitutional jurisprudence, and the corresponding rise of comparative constitutional studies—a distinctly cross-disciplinary area of inquiry that transcends the traditional disciplinary divide between the legal and social scientific study of constitutionalism across time and place. I then proceed to evaluate the increasingly diverging trends in the United States’ and Canada’s constitutional paths over the last few decades and the possible lessons that these differing patterns may offer for comparative constitutional theory. To that end, I examine from a comparative perspective (i) patterns of democratic backsliding and constitutional retrogression in the United States; (ii) the rise of a distinct “us first” constitutional approach to climate change in the United States; and (iii) recent developments in Canadian constitutional law and politics with respect to the Charter’s section 1 and section 33—two of Canada’s constitutional innovations that are frequently addressed in comparative constitutional literature.
